Organizing the Pantry

I have a small pantry and would like advice on how to organize it. Can you stack canned goods on the floor?

Onesummer from GA

Answers:

Organizing the Pantry

Keep things together that are used frequently. Like keeping all baking supplies and canned items together, all the tomato products (paste, purees...), beans, soups, corn together - this will make searching a minimal task. If you do ethnic cooking, you can keep the supplies gathered in separate sections too.

I keep my spices in one of those ELFA racks from The Container Store that hubby shortened so that it fits on a shelf. I keep the spices in alphabetical order and the ones in large jars are very close by, all grouped together.

Been using the Elfa spice drawer rack for so many years that I am guessing it's been at least 15. Still satisfied. (09/05/2006)

By Holly

Organizing the Pantry

I also have a very small pantry. My solution was to buy a cheap but sturdy bookshelf and put it in my laundry room. I stack all my canned goods on the shelfs. (09/06/2006)

By SherryB

Organizing the Pantry

I have a tiny apartment which means tiny kitchen, almost no cabinet space, laughable counter space. But it did come with a pantry, its small but at least I have one. I utilize it all the way to the ceiling. For my can goods, I had a white wire three tier basket shelf kinda thing that used to be used in my bathroom, when I had a bigger place. I now use it in my pantry, I just slid it in and put all my can goods on it.

I do sauces on top, veggies in the middle and bottom, and whatever doesnt fit, goes on the floor next to it. As long as they are neat in there on the floor, they dont bother me. Also has a door so it gets too messy I just close it, lol. I also put an end table that I had extra into the pantry, lots of room down low. On it I can put appliances, more food and then put stuff underneath it also. (09/06/2006)

By christi

Organizing the Pantry

The ELFA rack picture from the Container Store didn't come through, so I will explain. It's a set of drawers that are very shallow, made of wire. In fact, it's probably the shallowest set of drawers that they offer. DH shortened the legs on this so that it fits on the pantry shelf and has three drawers.

For my son's apt., I set up some large stacking wire shelves (also from The Container Store) in the apt. coat closet and arranged canned goods on them. He has a protein shelf (peanut butter, tune...), a canned veggie shelf, a soup shelf and the top is the junk food shelf because potato and tortilla chip bags are the tallest.

Holly (09/07/2006)

By Holly

Organizing the Pantry

We have a single closet size pantry in our kitchen and it has about 4 deep shelves. When I buy things on sale I group like items together neatly (a lot like the picture in one of the other posts).

Now for the fun part... RECYCLE YOUR CONTAINERS! Plastic or glass containers originally used for mayonnaise, peanut butter and jelly are great for storage. (I use the ketchup containers for mixing my own cleaning solutions for veggies, etc.). Simply remove all of the labels and once the jar is washed thoroughly and dryed out, use those containers to sugar, flour, salt, beans, rice etc. You'll have no more pesky bags to deal with (and hopefully no bugs in the flour).

Take a permanent marker or label maker (if you want to get fancy) and clearly mark the new continents of each container (going for the salt when you think it's sugar is no fun!). Best of all... you'll have a beautifully organized pantry that looks great, and you'll be helping to save our planet. (09/11/2006)

By brws